Something has come pretty clear to me lately. We need to treat the disease. With, or after that, we can worry about the symptoms, but ain’t nothin’ gonna change ’till we fix the root problem.
Which is why, right now, I’m (and please don’t take this to mean “And all other Christians should be this way”) not to worried about poverty, or hunger, or war. I’m worried about the Good News, Gospel, euangelion… stuff like that…
consider: you bring the good news – live out the good news – by helping individuals, by combatting poverty, war, disease, hunger. I think we should definitely strive as Christians to also do this on the personal, individual level. To love concretely, not just abstractly. To speak truth to someone, and not just give money for someone else to speak truth. (Although money is needed too, and not everyone will necessarily be “on the front lines.”)
good, fairly quick read: “Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World” by Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi.
(Did you attend his seminar at Urbana in ’03?)
But I know what you mean. You can only help someone superficially if you don’t cure the root problem.
What exactly is the good news? Prosperity, peace among men, health, wealth? Or is it that God came down among us, died, and rose to reconcile our god-man relationship? It is entierly possible to be a christian and have all sorts of strife… all the symptoms because the disease is still in the world. There are plenty of organizations working on the symptoms, maybe we need more working on the disease.
Out of the cure comes help with the symptoms. I’m not denying that. But I think it is an upside down approach to lead with the tylenol…
I think the point Kristi is trying to make is that we can preach the Gospel all we want, but people won’t accept it if it isn’t real to them. Now, sometimes words are sufficient. But, to the poor, the sick, the hungry, the Gospel might not mean much in the face of their problems. These individuals will most likely ask what good is this Gospel to me in light of my circumstances.
It’s not a matter of doing one of the other. I think Kristi is right here, that we need to preach the Gospel, but we need to do so in ways that will make it real to people, i.e. feeding the hungry, healing the sick. Jesus himself did this, feeding the hungry and healing the sick and preaching the Gospel at the same time. That makes the Gospel tangible to them, and by meeting them at the point of their need, they are much more likely to see the reality of the message.
2 things…
1. I’m not talking about “THE RIGHT WAY TO DO THINGS” because there isn’t one… God works in all sorts of ways, and I’m glad that he works in different ways.
2. I agree, it isn’t a matter of doing one thing or the other, but sometimes it ends up doing one thing or the other, and sometimes the symptoms are all that is treated. And the symptoms aren’t really important. And they will never stop until the disease is cured.
so your concern is trying to treat the symptoms, but neglecting to address the disease? Perhaps something of an idea of love without Christ is not love?
Yeah… something like that… There are quite a few “missions organizations” that have a 30 minute presentation or whatnot, and never talk about gospel, just about how much better the people’s lives are because of the hospital they built or somethingorother…
and yet, they’re still gonna die someday. All the hospitals and food shelters won’t do them any good, if we don’t do something about that. I think I see where you’re coming from.